TRI (Totally Radical Improvement) - Clydes/Athenas to competitors - Re-Opened (Page 15)

Friday's workout, was a 90 minute bike ride and with warm up and cool down averaged just over 20mph.  Very happy with that ride,  Longest ride I've had since starting to bike again last June.  Probably didn't help my run time today either. 

Didn't quite make the sub 20 today.  Too many hills and a 20mph winds,  at least that's my feeble excuse.  Results follow.

	20m 27s 3.10 miles 06m 36s/Mi	Min HR: 105 Avg HR: 174 Max HR: 183
8:30 AM     [Lap data] [ HR data]

	1h 00m 17.33 miles 17.33 Mi/hr	Min HR: 124 Avg HR: 140 Max HR: 157
9:30 AM     [Lap data] [ HR data]

Keep up the good work on the running.  Some days go really well and some days you wonder why your running and other days you wonder if you'll ever get any better.  But you will.  I know my times are fast now, but 4 years ago I could barely finish a mile in under 10 minutes.  And I didn't have it in me to run a second mile.  So stay positive and roll with the punches as they say.

Hi guys, 

I had a great race on the weekend, It wasn't perfect (it never is!) and I have plenty to go away and work on. But I was able to set a PR for this course by over 10 minutes. So very happy with that. I was also in the top half overall, which is the first time that's happened to me in a triathlon. There's a race report up in my logs. Or a version with pictures in my blog, here. 

Hope everyone else had a great weekend. 

Sorry Mitzi, No swimming advice from me. Other than if you're struggling getting some professional coaching, or masters group etc. would be a great investment for you. 

Swimming advice:  For what it's worth.  The drills I like to do are found on this site if you search for them.  Golf (no joke it's a swimming drill), drag finger tips, paddles are ok, they help develop your lats, and get the feel of the pull, Foam thing between legs is good- it keeps your legs up, if they sink a lot.  I hate using the kick board, but it is good for my hips for running,  I don't think it really benefits me in my swimming.  The other drill I really like is having a 12-18 inch stick in your hand, keep that stick in front of you and do a stroke and grab stick with other hand and then do stroke with other arm.  Hopefully that makes sense, it keeps you stretching as far as possible each stroke.

Couple of things for beginners in swimming.  1.  Relax, most new swimmers flail and move their head all over the place.  2. Reach as far as you can on each stroke, most new swimmers only do a 3/4 stroke, feel your body gliding through the water.  When you turn your head to breath your mouth should barely be out of the water.  And last thing is if you really want to improve join a Masters group.  They are really good.

Hey guys - had a three hour job interview today so today's training is in the toilet (as in cancelled) - I have switched off days to hopefully accommodate.  

Regarding swimming I have been doing longer sessions and try to time out 100 meter sprints here and there - I am still slower than prior to breaking my clavicle last year but not terrible - I believe I have the stamina now to swim a consistent 2 miles at the same speed - I can pretty much slog out lap after lap at a 2:30/100 meter pace ... my sprints are right around 2:00/100 meters but I have yet to test stamina for more than 100m bursts at a time ... it will come.   I am confident as I increase volume a sub 1:20 IM swim will be possible.  Guess I will see in about 3 weeks when I test myself with the half ...

Hi guys, 

I've had a steady, if unspectacular week of training. It's the first week after daylight savings ended here, so evening workouts, especially rides are beginning to change. This week I've had 2 20k rides after work, but the wind trainer isn't far away! 

So far this week, 

M: easy day after Tri, 30 min run

T: am 20 min run, pm 45 min ride

W: am swim, pm 30 min run

T: pm 50 min ride

and to come

F am swim, pm 60 min long run

S 2:30 ride & 20 min run

S 60 min ride & 20 min run. 

So should end up at about 8.5-9 hours of S/B/R for the week. 

About swimming, you guys should check out the http://www.swimsmooth.com/ website. It's got some pretty good stuff on it that might help you out. 

Truly a terrible day today ... spent a solid hour watching the news with my sons and then had to field questions from my 6 year old about terrorism and why the world has bad people.  My boy and I are scheduled to run together this Sunday and I think my little guy is afraid that we could be blown up at the finish.  

I will be back tomorrow to recap my week and hopefully you all will be checking in.  Just got back from track practice and the kids are in good spirits - need to be positive and do the get them ready for bed and tuck them in tonight (typically I would go to bed now and the wife would do that but tonight we will do it together) ...

Hello Everyone,

(Long post)

Been off the reservation for a while, still trying to create the right balance to document, practice, and chat with you all.

Coming home from a evening meeting, I learned about the Boston Marathon incident while walking to the train.  I had literally just been accosted by a NYC crazy, who purposely bumped into me, while yelling hateful statements.  I screamed back at the woman, Get off of me, Get the hell away from me, and then walked towards the train.  In walking behind someone else, I overheard them mention did you hear about the Boston marathon, two people died.   All, I could think, not knowing about how bad it actually was, oh no, now people dying at marathons too?  - I was in the 2011 NYC triathlon where 2 people died in the race.  Then I got into the train, and at 125th street where I wanted to switch trains, someone jumped into the track.

By the time I got home fear was coursing through my veins, as I began wondering, is NYC next?  Should I even attempt to run in the NYC marathon this year?  Will they target the NYC triathlon that I am currently training for? Yesterday, was just an off putting day, like a dark cloud settled in from 4 pm on.

BigPaul - I can't imagine what it must be like to try to calm, your children, who love you, want to see you happy doing what makes you happy, and now have the positivity stained with fear for you, for themselves as they approach the workout they in the past they have used to bond with you.

---

Mitzi -- so good to see your workouts coming along.  I know you must be thrilled to be in the thick of things again.

Other happenings over the past 2-3 weeks

Weigh ins:  last four weeks +3.5, -0.9, 0, -0.9 for net loss (since week 1 seven week ago):  6.6

Bike:  Discovered that that are overlaps to my gearing.  I thought that the gear 1-7, would be less than 2-1, but discovered that the gearing is such that gear 1-7 is actually faster than gears, 2-1 through 2-4. 

Swim:  Getting stronger, or maybe just more confident.  Swimming is less than a struggle, but still slow.  Discovered the site, swimsmooth and watching the videos of the different classifications of swimmers, helped me identify my swim personality and what to do about it.  I am an oversthinker.  So to get out of my head, I swam yesterday for the first time with with finis tempo trainer. It helped me swim steadily faster, without overthinking because I forced myself to swim the best I can, as correct as I can between the beeps.  What an improvement in inefficiency at least. Bull frog -- I just read your post, and saw you recommended swimsmooth, too.  What a coinkadink.

Also ran into a life guard that I first met in '09 / '10 while self training.  He told me that I am pretty good, however, my feet still a little low in the water, and that I seem to pause a little to long at the ends of the pool. Because of him in '09/'10 I found Terry McLaughlin's Total Immersion, and learned how to float to correct low legs in the water.  Seems like whenever needed, my tri angels are sent to me, to give me the message that I need at that time.  So I went to goswim, to look up kicks, and realized that I needed to change my view on how I see kicks, so now I am attempting to swim making sure my heels break the water surface when I swim, keeping in mind the goswim videos that I viewed.

Run:  Runs are getting stronger, I no longer feel "old".  After taking several months off, being completely sedentary, and eating like crap, when I started doing occasional runs late again last year, my leg muscles would knot up.  I never, ever, felt that before in my life, and this was despite having been on the track team (back of packer) in HS, and training for and running the marathon in 2011, completing tris in 2009 and 2011.  Feel like my body is now at least to a base level, I feel I can step up the program a little bit.  Right now I have been doing podrunner intervals of 4min/powerwalk and 1 min run.

Other: Pulled back on weight training and nutrition revamp do to time constraints and energy deficiencies.  Want to incorporate weight training, but may have to save my juicing reboot until the off season.  The night of my strongest swim ever, I felt weak in the shower stall, lost balance, hit my head on the wall, it was slow lean back, so it was a light tap, but very disconcerting, and the same night lost my new, only worn 3x HRM interval sports watch (me and technology, I love it but something seems to always happen, this is why I would never by a Garmin, I can't imagine losing/damaging a 500+ watch).  Decided those were definitely signs to pull back a little.

I know I have not been documenting electronically, or even paper-wise my workouts as I should, so I decided to pull back to get the basics right.  Literally have been looking at my plan for the day, trying to accomplish what I could, but have not been keeping a great record of it.  Time has been getting the best of me, by trying to jostle, job search, meet and greets, professional development activities, that I am stuck on doing, doing, and not taking time to record and reflect.  Funny how wanting to do things perfectly, can lead to doing them haphazardly, or even not at all.

Ugggh - I will get this straight this time around.  I feel that my overthinking may be pervasive, so here is to pumping up the volume, and just do it.

Sorry for the negativity.  To end on a high point - I am getting stronger each day and am approach each workout with a sense of wonder and excitement.  I learn alot from you guys, and can't wait to do the tri season, and off season with a new sense of purpose.  And though it took a few years, I finally feel like this is me, this is my thing, I own it; I am not trying anymore, I am tri-ing.

Was doing some business travel, but workouts have gone really well,  Here's my last couple of days.

50m 2325.00 yards 02m 09s /100 yards

WU: 400  MS:  4x75 on 20" rest - odds ones have middle 25 yds as drill (1,3) - the evens have the first/last 25 as drill.  8x200 as follows:  - #1, #5 - 150 cruise, 50 FAST!  - #2, #6 - 100 cruise, 100 FAST!  - #3, #7 - 50 cruise, 150 FAST!  - #4, #8 - 200 FAST! These are on 30" rest.  200 easy.  Swim 5x150 on 15" rest. Do these w/paddles.  CD: 200

	1h 09m 29s 21.22 miles 18.32 Mi/hr	Min HR: 102 Avg HR: 142 Max HR: 167
7:03 AM     [Lap data] [ HR data]

	58m 20s 19.73 miles 20.29 Mi/hr	Min HR: 109 Avg HR: 151 Max HR: 171
7:11 AM     [Lap data] [ HR data]

	52m 35s 6.28 miles 08m 22s/Mi	Min HR: 86 Avg HR: 162 Max HR: 173
10:01 AM     [Lap data] [ HR data]